Carina de Rooij

Started: She began playing wheelchair basketball in 2000. (rolstoelbasketbal.nl, 25 Apr 2012 ) Reason: "After finding myself in a wheelchair, I started looking around for a new type of sports activity. I first started playing basketball at the Centre for Physical Rehabilitation, that's where I was being treated after my injury. Basketball was really 'love at first play' for me!" (sunrisemedical.nl, 2016) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (parawatcher.nl, 26 May 2023; culemborgsecourant.nl, 30 Jun 2023) Milestones: She was part of the Dutch squad that won the Netherlands' first Paralympic gold medal in women's wheelchair basketball at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Jul 2024) Awards: She and cyclist Daniel Abraham Gebru were flag bearers for the Netherlands at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (medias.paris2024.org, 28 Aug 2024)

Sporting Relatives: Her husband Anton de Rooij represented Netherlands in wheelchair basketball at five Paralympic Games between 1992 and 2016, winning a gold [1992] and silver medal [2000] in that span. In total, he played more than 700 international matches for the Dutch national wheelchair basketball team. (gelderlander.nl, 21 Sep 2019, 15 Feb 2019; SportsDeskOnline, 08 Jan 2024)